Fun Fact Thread! (previously fun fact for the day, not limited to 1 per day anymore.)

[AckSed]

When was the first folding umbrella? In the museum of Anatolian History in Ankhara, there are the wooden remains of a folding umbrella/parasol found in Phrygian grave goods dating to the 7th century BC. Can anyone do one earlier?

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, AckSed said:

When was the first folding umbrella? In the museum of Anatolian History in Ankhara, there are the wooden remains of a folding umbrella/parasol found in Phrygian grave goods dating to the 7th century BC. Can anyone do one earlier?

Art would be the obvious place to look, but it does not show it's folding. But its pretty simple to make and probably more sturdy than an fixed one in wind. head with 6-12 flexible mountings, equal number of spines. and ring to hold them out and an locking pin to keep ring in place, turn upside down to open insert pin.  

[DDE]

Mudskippers are evolution's gift to evolutionary biologists. They're basically Amphibia, take two, a form of fish that have developed adaptations for an almost entirely terrestrial lifestyle (their gills are mostly non-functional), but completely independent from the original amphibians, and using very different solutions. These solutions allow them to be a lot faster than our tetrapod ancestors, which is important because they're not nearly as alone on land as they were.

Edited April 20 by DDE

[kerbiloid]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:14 PM, AckSed said:

When was the first folding umbrella? In the museum of Anatolian History in Ankhara, there are the wooden remains of a folding umbrella/parasol found in Phrygian grave goods dating to the 7th century BC. Can anyone do one earlier?

Yes.
 

Spoiler

 

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Yes.
 

  Hide contents

 

Second one is just pretending, but this is nor folding, just flexible. Once we stole an plastic banner and carried on our head because it was raining, we was obviously drunk,  it was flexible but not folding like an umbrella. 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

On 4/20/2024 at 6:10 PM, magnemoe said:

Second one is

...a parasol.  Very fashionable. 

[DDE]

During the closing days of WWI, the Germans developed the B-1E Elektronbrandbombe, a 1 kg incendiary bomb with a thermite payload in a casing of an aluminum-magnesium alloy known as Elektron. It was the predominant Luftwaffe incendiary in WWII, leading to many raised eyebrows as contemporary materials keep referring to "electron(ic) bombs".

[darthgently]

3 hours ago, DDE said:

During the closing days of WWI, the Germans developed the B-1E Elektronbrandbombe, a 1 kg incendiary bomb with a thermite payload in a casing of an aluminum-magnesium alloy known as Elektron. It was the predominant Luftwaffe incendiary in WWII, leading to many raised eyebrows as contemporary materials keep referring to "electron(ic) bombs".

Well, there is a lot of electron exchange in a thermite reaction (and many other reactions!), but yeah.  Reminds me of the translation of "ball-point pen" being "atomic pen" in China (not sure if still true)

[darthgently]

So obvious once you see it done.  Technical ecstasy here

 

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, darthgently said:

So obvious once you see it done.  Technical ecstasy here

 

Like the V-22 so nothing new I say, why not go for an tail sitter on a drone, fixed wings for cruise performance, propellers above and below wings for takeoff and landing. 
Benefit of the V-22 is that is can take off with far more than its VTOL landing load from an air strip. but its burned so much fuel it can land unload and fly back. 

[darthgently]

39 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Like the V-22 so nothing new I say, why not go for an tail sitter on a drone, fixed wings for cruise performance, propellers above and below wings for takeoff and landing. 
Benefit of the V-22 is that is can take off with far more than its VTOL landing load from an air strip. but its burned so much fuel it can land unload and fly back. 

I think it is quite a bit different than the V-22.  More powerplant redundancy, and appears a lot more aerodynamic with more wing/lift area in forward mode than the V-22.  Also, I think the torsional loads may be more spread out with possibly less focused gyroscopic inertia during mode change.  I really like the way the aft end of the motor nacelles become landing legs.  Finally, the four smaller props vs two large V-22 props give better ground, tree, and powerline clearance.

Admittedly, I'm thinking "flying car" more than "cargo/troop hauler"

[DDE]

The first Salyut station had a fairing stenciled "Zarya". TASS didn't care, so that's how the station is known now.

[kerbiloid]

Zarya was written previously, before two stations were stolen.

Salyut is the bureau, so its name was ancested.

[DDE]

The US derivative of the 22,000-pound Grand Slam bomb was known as "Amazon".

Fulfillment?

[kerbiloid]

Body-positive inclusion.

Happily, it doesn't ride a horse.

[darthgently]

40 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Body-positive inclusion.

Happily, it doesn't ride a horse.

Something about it probably killing the horse, then if it exploded would be beating a dead horse on steroids.

In other "news"...

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by darthgently

[Kerwood Floyd]

The silhouette is reminiscent of a Rebel X-wing fighter 

[Terwin]

18 minutes ago, Kerwood Floyd said:

The silhouette is reminiscent of a Rebel X-wing fighter 

Still a couple days early for that 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

3 hours ago, darthgently said:

Something about it probably killing the horse, then if it exploded would be beating a dead horse on steroids.

In other "news"...

 

 

There is some chatter that it might have been involved in an accident... 

 

[DDE]

3 hours ago, darthgently said:

Something about it probably killing the horse, then if it exploded would be beating a dead horse on steroids.

In other "news"...

 

 

That's either a Lancet in a very strange disguise, or someone is having way, way too much fun with a model airplane.

[StrandedonEarth]

27 minutes ago, DDE said:

That's either a Lancet in a very strange disguise, or someone is having way, way too much fun with a model airplane.

Or model rocket, possibly. My brother had one back in the 80’s…

[DDE]

1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Or model rocket, possibly. My brother had one back in the 80’s…

I found a pretty chonky rocket-propelled X-Wing from 2007. It didn't survive first flight.

[StrandedonEarth]

There was an article, either in this thread or the Science News thread, about tickling, but I was unable to search it up. Basically, it’s known we can’t tickle ourselves (the soles of the feet may be an exception, imo), but it was also noted that tickling yourself also makes you resistant to someone else tickling you at the same time. 

This info has been very useful, since my wife enjoys tickling me, which drives me nuts and not in a good way. Now I can tolerate it once I can set up my defence, much to her disappointment and my relief 

[kerbiloid]

Squeezing/twisting the big toe or the nose (depends on the tickle location) is a known way to supress it, too.

Or just a pinch of skin.